Wrath of Yangchen
by Shadowsnake89
Summary: One-shot. A young Avatar Yangchen is sent on her final trial to purge a dark presents from within herself. But meditation may not be all that is required to solve this problem.


Several days of traveling by sky bison lead a young Avatar Yangchen and her master Shui to a solitary spot in the Earth Kingdom, a small boggy swamp with thick vines covering the area. A quest of the utmost importance had brought them here: a quest to release the young Avatar of something within her. Even after having mastered the four elements the Council of Elders in the Western Air Temple had refused to acknowledge her full Avatar status. They had found something dark inside of her, something threatening to corrupt everything the Avatar represents.

Shui leads the way into a small cave entrance hidden behind the foliage. She slowly guides the twenty-two year old Avatar through the narrow passage into a large cavern, the center of the room containing a large pool of water. "This my young protege is the Pool of Wong Zei, one of the few places where the two worlds meet. Here anything is possible. Here is where you will meet your final trial. You will meditate in this spot until you have rid yourself of the darkness inside of you. This is as far as I can go with you. I will await you outside."

Yangchen, though skeptical complies with her masters request and sits near the pool, beginning her meditation. She folds her legs, closes her eyes and, after starting her breathing cycles, focuses her thoughts. Images begin racing through her mind of past events: At age 7 when she pushed one of the other children down after losing a game of marbles, at age 12 when she attacked two girls who made fun of her tattoos, at age 17 when she became extremely frustrated in her training and almost killed her firebending teacher with an uncontrolled blast. Even the pillar she had cut in half at hearing her rejection by the council elders. All these thoughts filled her mind as she sweats and grits her teeth from the strain of reliving these events.

"How could I have done those things? I'm an air nomad. Peace, tranquility, calm. I am the Avatar, born to bring and keep balance to the world. This rage is not apart of who I am, it is not me. This rage is not who I am it is not me. It is not me...it is not me." She continues to chant to herself.

"On that we disagree a great deal." a low, hissing voice says as Yangchen opens her eyes to see a man in front of her in the same position. His appearance is quite unsettling, with chalk whit skin highlighted with an array of green spiraling tattoos across his body, and his shoulder length hair is a crimson red. The only clothing he sports is a pair of black hakama with wrappings around the lower legs and a pair of tabi to cover his feet. The menacing figure suddenly stands as Yangchen does as well to find that he stands at least a foot taller than her. His first response is to deliver a swift forward punch to her chest that sends her flying across the room. "You wish to expel me. I am Heng. We are two halves of the same. You cannot rid yourself of rage, of me."

Yangchen staggers to her feet and launches a blast of air at the manifestation. He nimbly dodges the attack and closes the distance. She then unleashes several water shots using the pool in the cave to similar results before earthbending several large rocks to hurl at him. Heng evades the first two before the third hits him and the forth knocks him flat. He leaps up again, grabbing one of the projectiles and tossing it back at her. Yangchen halts the boulder with her bending feet in front of her. She is taken by complete surprise as he smashes through it grabbing her by the throat. "You don't get it do you? I have made you strong, I could make you stronger still."

"Rage is not strength." she manages to mutter out. "You may be a part of me, but a part I want no part of."

He looks down and then back to her in dissapointment."If we do not leave together than one of us must perish." He raises his arm to finish the fight, several sharp claws on his finger tips. Before he can deliver the final blow Yangchen unleashes flames into his face from her left hand. He drops he to the ground, reeling from the blast as the Avatar takes the offensive. She concentrates activating the Avatar state, unleashing a torrent of attacks on Heng. He finds himself unable to counter the elemental downpour as he is blitzed and is eventually pressed against the cave wall with a constant air blast. She advances on him while maintaining the attack, eventually able to reach out her right hand, placing it on his forehead. She concentrates as he screams out to stop her only to have his hands and feet bound to the wall by earth shackles. Her tattoos begin to glow brighter for several long seconds as Heng's body begins to contort until it transforms into a green mist and is sucked down into the pool, howling as it goes.

The young Avatar steps back, taking calm breaths as the ordeal finally ends. She sits down once more to sort through her thoughts, finding that her anger has subsided. Yangchen than stands walking out of the cave, greeted by Shui, who has awaited her apprentice. "I have succeeded. I am no longer a slave to my rage master."

"Then you are truly on your way, Avatar Yangchen. Let us return home." Shui says as the two head back up the hill to where they left the Sky Bison to graze.

Inside the cave however, the pool stirs, with Heng's reflection still on the surface. "We will meet again Avatar. And you will suffer at my hands. This I promise."


End file.
